Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been medically cleared to return to NASCAR after a test session at Darlington Raceway, the series announced. Earnhardt sat out the last half of 2016 to recover from a concussion, and will return to competition at the Daytona 500.

In the second period of tonight’s Canucks-Devils game, Canucks defenseman Philip Larsen was brutally laid out by a Taylor Hall hit he never saw coming. The Canucks and Devils briefly scuffled before everyone realized that Larsen was immobile at the feet of the scrum. His helmet came off before the fight was stopped.

When a league’s concussion protocol works like it’s intended, players will get mad. There’s no way around it. Connor McDavid, the Oilers’ young star, was yanked off the ice after hitting his head in last night’s home loss to Minnesota, and he was pissed.

The Minnesota Vikings held Dak Prescott to his fewest yards passing in an NFL game and staged a late comeback against the Dallas Cowboys tonight, but they came up short on a late two-point conversion and lost, 17-15. After hitting Jerick McKinnon for a touchdown pass, Sam Bradford airmailed his two-point throw a few…

Indiana backup quarterback Zander Diamont didn’t specify how many concussions he’s had due to football, but he ballparked it at “a lot.” The junior has decided to step away from the sport after the Hoosiers’ bowl game. Diamont’s reasons were simple and sound. From the Indianapolis Star:

USC-Notre Dame has long been a dirty rivalry, so here’s Notre Dame defensive lineman Jerry Tillery kicking USC’s Aca’Cedric Ware in the head just after Ware took a brain-scrambling helmet-to-helmet blow from Nicco Fertitta—one that got Fertitta ejected from the game.

Why is it so unsettling that Luke Kuechly cried? This is a sport where players suffer brain injuries every single game, yet Kuechly’s apparent concussion and subsequent reaction as he was carted off the field has completely overshadowed the Panthers’ win, in a way that doesn’t happen when someone is merely knocked…

Harvard University wants the NFL, the NFLPA, and everyone complicit in the NFL industrial complex—all the way down to media and fans—to take steps toward policies that will “protect and promote” the overall heath of football players.

The Kansas City Chiefs are making a change at quarterback: the team will start Nick Foles over Alex Smith for Sunday against the Jaguars. Tyler Bray will be the backup; Smith won’t even dress. Is Smith still suffering the effects of brain trauma from Sunday’s game against the Colts? The Chiefs aren’t even being clear…

Bills receiver Brandon Tate left today’s game after Patriots safety Devin McCourty delivered a hit on him in the third quarter. Getty Images stringer Tom Szczerbowski captured the moment of contact in which Tate’s body stopped, but his face stayed in motion, because football is a game of constant collisions.

Brian Jones failed out of the NFL due to injury—he even filed, and lost, a lawsuit over it—but don’t tell him that the sport of football needs rules to protect players’ long-term health. The CBS college football analyst alternately demanded players grow eyes in the back of their head or barked “KEEP YOUR HEAD ON A…

The NFL and NFLPA have released a joint statement explaining why Cam Newton wasn’t removed from the game to be evaluated for symptoms of brain damage after taking multiple blows to the head in Week 1. What the statement says, essentially, is that the things that millions of people saw happen to Newton on the field…

Pascal Laberge was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of this year’s NHL draft, and currently plays for the Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. During Saturday’s game against the Moncton Wildcats, he took a vicious hit from Zachary Malatesta.

During an Oct. 2 game against the Browns, Washington linebacker Su’a Cravens suffered a concussion while attempting to tackle Cleveland running back Isaiah Crowell. Now, Cravens and his team appear to be having trouble settling on the exact severity of his brain injury.